Dale Robertson Skedaddles Away From Racist Photo

Tommy Christopher interviews Dale Robertson, the Tea Party activist who became infamous after I published a photo of him holding a sign with the phrase “Taxpayer = NIGGAR.” Robertson’s unhappy, understandably, with his new status as an activist who’s pilloried every time he’s quoted.

The photograph in question, available in hi-res here, depicts Robertson holding a sign that says “Congress=Slaveowner, Taxpayer=N***ar.” The misspelled n-word appears to have been duct-taped over the original sign, which Robertson claims read “Congress=Slaveowner, Taxpayer=Slave.” He says he never taped anything over the original sign, nor did anyone else. He says the photo must be a fake.

How convenient! In reality, a source in the Tea Party movement who was worried about Robertson’s bid for mainstream cred — his TeaParty.org site was promoted in an email from the fairly mainstream ResistNet — emailed me a very high-res version of the photo. I checked with people who were at the 2009 Tea Party where Robertson held the sign, who told me he was encouraged to leave — there was no tolerance for his sign. I checked in with Robertson’s publicist on Jan. 4, did not get a response, then, later that day, ran the photo. Robertson has had several months to correct the record, but I’ve never heard from him, nor have I heard anyone else contradict the story of him at the Tea Party event.